Re: [FR] A more general case than footnotes

[Karl Fogel]

Ihor Radchenko writes: 
> Maske <maske1foro@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > I propose links to arbitrary points in different files.
> >
> > Furthermore, I think it would be a very nice new feature,
> > probably more opinions than mine should be heard.
>
> See:
> - 
> https://list.orgmode.org/orgmode/118435e8-0b20-46fd-af6a-88de8e19fac6@app.fastmail.com/
> - 
> https://list.orgmode.org/orgmode/CAJniy+OVD0NCWZZTPit5T7wvsbLbgLLXZmPub5tgq3gsHsGhYw@mail.gmail.com/
> - 
> https://list.orgmode.org/orgmode/CAJcAo8s=cjNY-7-mA1zQk3R9HEWYreTatdVeHfJ39ccM9=kMog@mail.gmail.com/
>
> The idea is not new, but we need someone to implement it one way
> or another.

At my company, I implemented something that (I think) does what 
Maske and those earlier threads are getting at:

https://code.librehq.com/ots/ots-tools/-/blob/main/emacs-tools/oref.el

We often use it with Org Mode files, but it's not specific to Org 
Mode -- it works with any plaintext format.  In fact, our most 
common use case is cross-referencing from precise locations in 
LaTeX files to precise locations in Org Mode files.

A couple of days ago I happened to post [1] on the Emacs 
Humanities list about a updated version of oref.el.  Maske noticed 
that post, and referred me to this thread here.

My original announcement post from a year ago [2] is a good place 
to get a quick overview of how oref.el works.

At the time I wrote oref.el, I didn't know about org-id.el.  But 
it wouldn't be too hard to make oref.el automagically compatible 
with Org ":ID:" properties.  I.e., `oref-do-ref' would jump to 
them, copy them, etc, in just the same way it currently does with 
native oref references.  And the oref ref files cache would just 
become the union of `oref-ref-files-cache' and `org-id-files'. 
While I'll hand-wave a bit on the details right now, I think there 
is a natural compatibility available.  If people are interested in 
this extension of oref.el, let me know.

Best regards,
-Karl

[1] 
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-humanities/2023-10/msg00001.html

[2] 
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-humanities/2022-10/msg00009.html